Unemployment falls for 9th consecutive month

Unemployment registered in Catalonia fell for the ninth consecutive month in November, as the economic recovery in 2021 following a disastrous 2020 continues. 

In total, 8,138 more people were employed in November compared to October - a fall of 2.15% - according to data published on Thursday by Spain's ministry of labor.

This left 369,822 workers without jobs in Catalonia by the end of the second last month of the year. 

Compared with 2020, when the country was in the midst of the second wave of the pandemic, the total number of jobless is down 23.71% - 114,926 fewer people registered as unemployed.

This month's registered unemployment figures are even better than 2019's figures as well, when some 390,000 were without work.

Catalonia has created 14,765 more jobs in October and the number of people employed has risen by 135,509 in the last twelve months.

After peaking at 512,290 people out of work last February, coinciding with the third wave of Covid-19 infections, unemployment has steadily decreased, bolstered by the gradual lifting of restrictions on mobility and businesses.

Two ways of calculating unemployment

The figures differ from those from the latest Labor Force Survey (EPA in Spanish), which is published every three months. The variation in the figures can be attributed to the different methods for gathering data.

The work ministry figures, published in this article, are based on the number of jobseekers registered with the Employment Service, while the EPA figures are taken from surveying a broad sample of 65,000 households, or some 200,000 individuals, all over Spain.